Defense Department specialists in radiation suits on the Nuclear Test Site in the Nevada desert outside Las Vegas hold Geiger counters during a simulated nuclear weapons accident test. In the "Broken Arrow" (any accident involving a nuclear weapon) exercise, the Defense Department and the Department of Energy simulated the crash of a helicopter carrying nuclear weapons. Various agencies and departments then practiced coordinating their responses in an effort to find and clean up the mess. Real radioactive material was spread around the desert and a large number of soldiers simulated the angry residents of a nearby town..1981
